Soulmates
by grayfirefly
Summary: What if their strings of fates crossed each other in another place and in another time, would they have a chance to end up together?
1. PROLOGUE

**A/N:** If Ai and Conan can't have a story in Gosho's work, I will create one myself. Therefore, please keep in your mind that this is a different story from DC original. However, I'm not sure about anything. The characters may change their personalities and I can't promise I will continue this.

**Disclaimer:** Detective Conan, luckily (or perhaps unluckily :P), doesn't belong to me. If it did, it would be a shoujo manga, not a shonen. :] I own nothing but the words.

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

_._

_._

_I never believe in fate._

Some people usually say that it's not easy to run into someone. That every single person happens to appear in your long journey through this dull world certainly is decided by God. Like everyone is connected somehow someway.

Two people can share the same destiny. Two people can be predetermined to be together in the end or to be forever apart from the very first moment they see one another.

I don't like those silly ideas. I don't even care about them. They are just…so uncertain and unreal.

Not to mention ridiculous.

Just like how foolish it is to think that if you dumbly or clumsily trip on a banana peel, you can call that your unchangeable destiny?

Humor me.

To me, certainty is always the most beautiful thing because after all, I am a scientist, not a hopeless romantic.

Realistically, a scientist doesn't daydream about fairy tale-like love, read mushy novels or watch sappy dramas.

A scientist will only stay in labs and study science. She rather tries to discover whether the monkey can play poker or not than why two strange people can bump into each other on some random street.

That's why I never believe that there _could_ be someone who was born just for me and always waiting for me somewhere someday.

My life is not a fairy tale no matter which irrational way you look at it.

It isn't.

It can never be.

.

.

.

_((Until I met him))_

_._

_._

_._

_._

_I never believe in love at first sight._

To tell the truth, I never believe in love _at all_.

Why do people fall in love?

Fear of loneliness, apparently.

Try to find someone to complete them, to fill in their permanent emptiness, undoubtedly.

But I don't mind at all.

Loneliness. Emptiness. They have been my closest friends for too long for me to remember.

Moreover, isn't it stupid to waste your precious time, your health, and your mind for someone who doesn't have any relation or blood ties with you?

To me, love is just like the flu; you can easily catch it if you are not careful. But after a while, it will be gone for sure.

No visible trace. No unforgettable memories.

People can get the flu countless times in their entire life and yet never know a thing about it.

Fortunately, I have rarely caught flu since I was a little girl, both literally and figuratively.

That's why I never think that I will fall in love with anyone by any slimmest chance.

I am not a princess, longing for a prince to write out a love story.

Not that I ever want to be.

Not that I ever think I will be.

.

.

.

_((Until I met him))_

_._

_._

_._

...x...x...

_** If Fate let our paths cross more than one time in the past, shall it let us stay together in the end?**_

_._

_._


	2. 1: Crossed Paths of Fate

**1. CROSSED PATHS OF FATE**

_._

_._

_** Life is a peculiar box._

_If you put the happy memories that you want to remember forever into it, they will keep fading away._

_If you put in the sad memories that you desperately want to forget, they will be kept for a long lifetime. **_

_._

_._

Snow.

She always likes snow.

When she was a little girl, every morning she opened her eyes and looked out the window, there would be snow outside. Her house located in a place where it snowed all the time. Her little world the other day was embraced in only grey and white. The cloudy sky in her childhood memories was as grey as a vast field that usually reminded her solely of sadness and desolation. The ground, on the other hand, was covered in pure white snow.

So white that it made you feel like all of your darker colors could be washed away into nothingness.

It wasn't a peaceful feeling. Neither was it disturbing or upsetting.

White snow just aroused boundless emptiness in her, capturing her in some far away land where all of her thoughts, sorrow, and pain vanished like a puff of smoke.

She used to think that she could stay like that forever, unthinking and uncaring. Living in her perfect castle of snow and ice, neglecting almost everything outside.

Nonetheless, life isn't a flat lake where your boat can glide over smoothly and quietly. It is a dangerously unpredictable ocean, just waiting for your stupid mistakes or simply a chance to drag you down and drown you to the bottom.

It's sneaky, isn't it?

That's why…the fifth time she wakes up after midnight, the sun has barely risen.

Don't get it wrong. She isn't a morning person at all. But, who can really sleep in a strange place and in a strange country?

Scientifically, different time zones can't allow you to do that. It might take a few days for normal people to adjust. For her, it should take much more.

Personally, she misses her old house, her old room, and her old bed. She misses the cold scent of snow, the translucent window which the sun rarely peeks through as well as the gray dusty sky that somehow becomes so beautiful and dear to her.

Staying in her sister's apartment even makes it worse.

This place drives her to memories that she neither wants to remember nor forget. Those are like your own shadow, no matter where you turn to, it will never ever disappear. It always stays behind you, waiting for a change of light to catch you off guard.

Sometimes memories are as sneaky as life itself.

Sitting up, she looks at a picture on the night table; her own unsmiling face silently stares back at her.

It was five years ago.

Time flies fast, surely. Despite that, she doesn't change much. On the outside, supposedly.

Next to her picture is Akemi's.

She reaches her hand out, holding its frame tightly as if it could slip out of her grip and break apart at any moment. Tracing down the side of Akemi's face with her delicate finger, some part of her is crushed into pieces. Contrary to her, her sister always had the brightest smile she could ever imagine. The type of smile makes you feel happy just to see it. And she wants nothing more but to see that smile in her whole life.

She knows she can never smile like Akemi.

Not that she can truly smile at all.

x...x

"_Neh, Shiho, I barely see you smile. Is America that cold?" Akemi tilted her head to the side, looking across the table at a strawberry blonde girl. _

"_It's cold, but I like that kind of weather, you know." Shiho sipped her coffee calmly, feeling her sister's eyes on her with concern._

"_You should come back to Japan more often, Shiho. If you stay in snow too long, sooner or later you will become snow yourself." Akemi noted, half-joking._

"_It doesn't matter where I stay, oneechan. I have always been like this since I was little." Shiho shook her head as she held back a sigh._

"_Yeah. You're right. I just wonder who will melt your ice in the future." Akemi chuckled teasingly, resting her chin on her palm. _

"_More importantly, are you okay, oneechan? I heard that you're in a pretty bad situation." Slightly leaning towards her sister, Shiho asked in a worried voice. _

"_Everything will be fine. Don't worry." Stirring ice in her glass of orange juice, Akemi smiled, all good nature and ease. _

"_But…" _

"_I will be careful." Akemi cut in softly yet firmly. "You should worry about yourself instead, Shiho." _

_Shiho bit her lip, hesitating. There were so many things she wanted to ask but she couldn't bring herself to press on Akemi. _

"_You _must_ be okay, oneechan." Shiho breathed out thoughtfully, her heavy-clouded eyes dropping to tiny drops of water on the table. _"Otherwise, I will never forgive that guy."_ She mumbled inaudibly, clenching her hands into fists._

"_I know. I'll be okay." Clearly oblivious – Akemi replied with a gentle expression. Her bright smile never faltered or wavered._

_It shouldn't have been a promise. Because all promises are just meant to be broken._

x...x

When she walks out of her sister's apartment, the street is almost empty. Everyone else is probably still sleeping, wandering aimlessly in their world of dreams. Or nightmares. Who knows?

It's eerily quiet here today. The only sounds she can hear are the birds' chirps and the echo of her own footsteps. However, she prefers it that way. Feeling like you are one of the only people existing in the world. Breathing in the fresh air that has yet to be tainted by smoke, dust, and even human themselves.

Actually, she doesn't want to be too early to school, but she can't stay in that apartment any longer.

It's just…so painful. And she needs to get away from it for a while.

School or wherever else is fine.

This is her third day of school and for some reason, she still feels strange. The new school isn't that bad, though it's inevitably different from her old schools in America. She doesn't care so much about how other students stare at her every place she goes for her strawberry blonde hair and emerald eyes. Or the _simple_ fact that she comes back from a foreign country after sixteen years but she can speak very fluent Japanese.

She guesses those _little_ points make her stand out unwillingly.

And she likes nothing of it. Being in the spotlight.

Even so, living inside her ice castle for too long, she gets used to ignoring what other people do. What isn't necessary to pay attention to. What remains aside her own world and will always remain out of her world.

It's a pretty easy way to survive, you may say. Rely only on yourself. Get along fine on your own.

After all, people are born lonely on this earth. No one can stay with you forever. Why do you need to care? Why do you need to bother to keep something back?

People can call her cold-blooded, heartless, or whatever they like.

It may be true. Or it may not.

You can't look at an abstract picture and fully grasp its hidden meaning, can you?

Her feet carry her to a not-so-familiar path that absolutely isn't the one she took on the first and second days to school.

But, funny thing is, she doesn't feel like she is lost. It's more like she goes back to somewhere in the long gone past, stirring inside her a déjà vu feeling.

After a few minutes of walking purposelessly, she stops in front of an old shrine with a row of cherry blossom trees that bloom beautifully, painting the ever blue sky in crimson pink.

She glances around, unconsciously searching for something.

And there it is.

Next to the ancient shrine's lamp is a white stone statue of a smiling cat.

Now she remembers this place. Akemi took her here once when she was about seven, after she had came back to Japan for the first time since the day their mother brought her to America.

x...x

"_Shiho, come here." Akemi waved her hand at Shiho, smiling._

_The seven-year-old girl slowly strolled toward her sister, still looking over her shoulder at the brown wood fence strangely. As if something had been there. _

"_Isn't he cute?" Akemi pointed down at the stone cat, gently tugging Shiho's hand._

_Taking a soundless step forward, Shiho shrugged in a manner that was so much unsuitable for a normal child, "I don't like unreal things." _

"_But he's really cute, oneechan," rushed out from her lips as she saw her sister's smile drop without any effort._

_Akemi's face lighted up again._

_It was so easy to make her sister happy. _

"_Do you know, Shiho, there are a lot of myths about this shrine. One of them is about this stone cat. People call him White Cat, the powerful gatekeeper of the shrine. Myths say that if you pray or wish for something sincerely before him, he will grant it to you. I usually come here and tell him my wishes…" Akemi gazed up to the sky filled with swirls of orange and white clouds._

_Shiho was silent, carefully thinking of how she should reply without dampening the mood. _

"_What do you wish for, oneechan?"_

_Turning toward Shiho, Akemi pinched her younger sister's nose fondly._

"_I wish that Shiho can stay here with me. That you can be happy and always smiling no matter where you are or what you're doing. You're my precious sister in this world. As long as you're happy, I will be too."_

_Shiho's lips curved into a rare smile. _

"_See? You're smiling. My wish is fulfilled." Akemi giggled, so giddily, looking even more like a little girl than Shiho herself._

x...x

She sits down on the porch step of the shrine, beside the cold stone cat that has stored people's memories inside his motionless eyes time after time.

How many memories has he kept? How many memories has he forgotten?

"Neh, do you still remember me, White Cat? It has been so long since that day…" Resting her chin on her knees, she pats the cat's head gently as if he were a real thing.

The chilly breeze tangles her reddish hair, caressing her pale cheeks, and swaying the dew-covered grass around her shoes.

A faint shadow of nostalgia dawns on her face.

How many memories can she keep? How many will she forget?

What human beings create will disappear one day. What still left is just shapeless dust of time.

"If I told you my wish, would you make it come true? If I gave you everything I have…Could you bring Akemi back?" Laying out her palm to catch a cherry blossom petal floating in the air, she murmurs in a muffled voice that even she herself cannot hear.

It's crazy. She knows.

If you lost the most important person in your life, what else would you do?

Wouldn't you pray for a miracle to happen in some incredible and inexplicable way? Wouldn't you try to believe in something that's totally opposite to what you always believe?

In desperation, people can do many reckless things. To get everything back in the way it used to be. To prevent themselves from falling apart completely.

Or simply, to relieve their infinite pains.

"I never knew someone would talk to that stone cat."

An amused voice sounds from somewhere so close yet so far to her, cutting through the sacred silence ruthlessly.

For a long moment, she thought that she had hallucination.

"Who's that?" She speaks out finally, feeling more unsure than ever as she scans around the empty shrine unexpectedly. Only to find the morning sunlight streaks across the pebble yard.

Talking to a stone cat is totally crazy. But hearing voice is definitely insane.

When she almost supposes it's just her imagination, the cherry blossoms trees suddenly shake violently.

In a daze, a young boy jumps down to the ground, his shoes meeting the grass with a soft thud.

She blinks her eyes to hide her astonishment.

The cherry blossoms fly around him like red snow.

She slowly rises to her feet as he bravely crosses the distance between them.

What is it called when you see someone for the first time and yet feel like you know him for all your life?

What is it called when you always think that life has begun the day you're born and yet now realize it has barely started until this very moment in this very place?

It's an indefinable feeling, mixing up reality and your dreams, provoking nothing but utmost ambiguity.

And she hates it. Absolutely hates it.

Then, she notices he is wearing the uniform of her school. For some incomprehensible reason, she finds herself noticing more than that.

Raven hair, porcelain skin, and a boyish face. Not to mention his vivid blue eyes. Those eyes somehow remind her of something she cannot get a hold of.

"Who are you?" She repeats her question in an unknowingly alluring voice as he stands in front of her, locking her eyes with his, trying to find an explanation for this odd sense of déjà vu.

He doesn't answer anything.

He just stares at her.

His eyes stay right with hers, as if they try to communicate a language she can't understand…

_Not yet._

And he suddenly smiles. Brightly. So brightly.

And she feels it, the slightest, most minuscule, twitch in her heart.

For one short second, her whole world seems to fade away…

...x...x...

.

.

.

_*** That fateful day, the first time we encountered, I never ever knew that there would be someone whose smile I wanted to see every day in my tedious life…_

_Someone whose eyes I wanted to look deep into them until I could reach his soul and lose myself in its endless depth._

_._

_._

_I had never known…_

_._

_Someone like you…***_

_._

_._


	3. 2: Ice Queen vs Sun Knight

**2. ICE QUEEN vs. SUN KNIGHT**

_._

_._

_** Life is full of coincidences, but meeting you should be fate. **_

_._

_._

There is some kind of feeling that goes as fast as it comes.

Like in the blink of an eye.

So fast that you barely realize its existence.

So fast that you just shrug it off, as if it _was_ nothing.

But, deep inside you, in some corner of your heart where light isn't able to illuminate, you know, more clearly than anyone else, that it used to be there.

Or perhaps, it's still there. Always there. Living, breathing, without your perception.

And really, it _wasn't _nothing.

It _is_ everything.

She tears her gaze away from the young boy, walking past him to the shrine gate.

Whoever he is, she doesn't feel like she wants to know right now.

"Hey, where are you going?" He calls out, running after her.

She just ignores him. Even that tone sounds frustratingly familiar.

"Hey, Miyano-san."

She stops abruptly. Without turning around, she asks in a cautious voice. "How do you know my name?"

She didn't meet him before.

She couldn't have met him before.

Because she remembers nothing.

Because he isn't someone she would have forgotten easily, if they had actually met.

And she hates admitting that.

"You are the new transfer student in my class. God, I can't believe you don't even recognize me." He utters a dramatic sigh.

They are in the same class. For real?

It shouldn't be a surprise to her, after all.

The first day of school, the teacher introduced her to the class. Everyone stared at her in intense silence, eager and anticipating. Much to their disappointment, she said nothing but a coolly unemotional 'Nice to meet you.'

Then, with the teacher's permission, she walked straight to the empty seat located in the farthest back right corner, next to the open window, looking at no one.

Even when she felt people's eyes on her. Even when she heard some whispers around her.

The second day made no significant difference. She still shut everything out of her world. Sitting there without being there.

"Anyway, my name is…" The young boy boldly steps forward, facing her again.

"Actually I know your name."

She looks anywhere but his eyes.

What is she avoiding? She doesn't know it herself.

The cherry blossoms rustle silently, covering them in a thick blanket of crimson stars.

"Really?" His voice is doubtful. His face is hopeful.

How funny it seems to think those contrary adjectives can even exist together.

"Yeah. It spells I.D.I.O.T, doesn't it?"

With that, she turns swiftly and walks away, not bothering to see his expression.

You know, in your brain, there should be a special neuron that can tell exactly who has the ability to cause disorder in your life, at some monumental moment.

What sort of person you are will strongly affect which way you choose to deal with it.

Those who _favor_ pain and agony, or more _simply_, unhappiness, will be intelligent enough to follow their hearts into the wicked trap that fate has intentionally set ahead.

The others, who are more prudent and deliberate, will quickly get away as far as possible, trying to escape that dangerous trap.

And all of her sensitive neurons are screaming hysterically at the boy behind.

"Shinichi Kudo. That's my name. Please, remember it, Miyano-san!" He shouts after her.

She can feel his smile in his voice.

_Shinichi Kudo._

This time, surprisingly, it does sound unfamiliar.

...x...x...

It's boring. So boring.

She knows every single thing that the teacher's prattling on about. No, maybe she knows even more.

After all, she was a prodigy in America. An eighteen-year-old biochemist. Not any ordinary high school student, seriously.

Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Math and English are, of course, nothing to her.

Trying to stifle a tired yawn, she looks up from her dull textbook. Suddenly aware of his curious gaze.

Idly sitting in the third row across from her in the middle of the room, he stares at her with a somewhat thoughtful expression.

Again, those eyes talk to her in some alien language that she, angrily, finds herself unable to decipher.

Breaking their eye contact, she glances out the window.

Have you ever hated someone so much for the way they make you feel? The way they make your heart painfully skip a beat. The way they suffocate you with just one electric glance. The way they mess up your mind with those dazzling smiles.

A small frown slightly creases her smooth forehead.

Nevertheless, there're some people who are very good at locking their feelings away. They have an exceptional power over their hearts. When they think they're feeling what they aren't supposed to feel, they can immediately freeze everything inside them — emotions, thoughts, pains — that even tiny blood vessels under their skin seem to be so iced up.

And after a while, those unwanted feelings will gradually vanish under that icy surface.

And naturally, they will go back to who they are, untouchable and unobtainable.

"Hey, Miyano-san, do you want me to show you around school?" He flops down on the open seat in front of her on lunch break, asking her cheerfully the same question that other boys and girls asked her two days ago. To no avail.

His smile shines like the sun, brilliantly.

She keeps gazing into some distant space, refusing to acknowledge his presence.

"Ah hah, Kudo, your wife's just absent a couple of days and you are hitting on another girl already?" Some classmates approach them, grinning cheekily and winking their eyes at him slyly.

"How many times do I need to tell you that Ran isn't my wife? And I'm not hitting on Miyano-san, you bunch of knuckleheads." Raising his voice in exasperation, he quickly dodges a playful fist swung toward him.

"Dude, do you think I buy that? You should be careful, Kudo. Mouri-san will beat you up with her karate when she finds out. If Sonoko also knows, she will one hundred percent chop you up into small pieces for shark fishing. Or maybe if she's generous enough, she only makes a famous detective like you the most wanted criminal in Japan." The boys snicker loudly.

One of them leans close to him, whispering in an excited voice, "I know Miyano is so hot, but you should consider your little life, playboy."

And they are laughing. Teasing. Joking.

And he is defending. Protesting. Blushing.

A chair scrapes sharply against the floor.

She stands up, wordlessly walking out of the classroom.

His eyes burn a hole in her back.

She can care less.

She never likes noises. They give her a bad headache.

She never likes the crowd. They deafen her ears with a bunch of nonsense.

Still, somehow, those people are… happy. They seem to have somewhere they truly belong.

Sometimes, she wonders, what if she had been born in another world, what if she had had a normal life like any teenager in that class, would she have become one of them?

_Would she smile… like him?_

She cannot find an answer.

You can't reverse the flow of time. You only have one life to live. Asking 'what if' is just pointless.

Nothing can change and nothing will change.

This is her life. Face it.

This is her way to survive. Accept it.

Human beings can't alter what isn't in their hands. After all.

...x...x...

The winds scatter violet tinted clouds all over the velvet sky.

Inhaling the ever strange scent of the autumn air, she slowly walks back to her sister's apartment after school.

People often say that you can get used to anything, if given enough time.

It most likely is true.

Just like how she got used to pain and loneliness, sorrow and emptiness, all her time.

"Miyano-san, didn't I tell you to wait for me?" Out of breath, he finally catches up with her.

His hair is now-tangled by running too fast.

She keeps looking straight forward though, completely ignoring him.

Who told him that she would listen to what he said anyway?

Scrunching up his eyebrows, he blocks her path. "Do you know that you look so much different from the girl I met this morning, when you were talking to the stone cat?"

With her arms folded, she looks him in the eye. "So what?"

She should've been angry. She should've been offended.

Because he shamelessly invaded her private world. Because he saw a part of her that she never wanted anyone to see.

Even so, as soon as he smiled at her in that disturbing way, her anger and irritation faded into nothing.

"Why do you have to act like that? People just try to be friends with you."

"I don't need them to." Shrugging indifferently, she glides past him. "Just leave me alone."

_We all have our own paths to walk. You live your life and I live mine. _

"I can't." He replies, making her stop dead in her tracks.

"I'm not sure why, but you're like a mystery case. As a detective, I don't like giving up until I can solve it." Rubbing his chin pensively, he comes closer to her, oblivious to the thickening air between them. "Do you know, when I'm next to you, I feel so cold? I never think that someone can be that cold. I even get goosebumps. I even virtually smell it. Your scent. The scent of eternal ice."

Her eyes widen.

The scenery around her changes rapidly.

_x...x_

"_Neh, Shiho, I just met Akai this afternoon. He came back from America yesterday." She can hear Akemi's smile through the phone. "He told me that he had seen you there."_

_Tracing the fragile snow flowers falling down outside the window with her eyes, she absentmindedly lets out a soft sigh._

"_Oh yeah?" She doesn't care. He is forever, forever a stranger to her. No matter how much her sister loves him. _

"_Yeah. He went with that friend. The one I showed you his photo once, do you remember?"_

"_No, I don't. Sorry, oneechan." She doesn't have a habit of remembering people who aren't important to her. People whom she doesn't even meet in real life. _

"_Never mind. That friend doesn't know you anyway. But, Akai said that you had looked so cold. As if anyone trying to touch you would be frozen into a solid block of ice. Shiho, are you okay over there?" She can imagine how her sister's eyebrows draw together in worry. How hurriedly she searches for her phonebook to book a flight to America._

"_I'm really doing fine, oneechan." She reassures firmly, gazing up to the white ceiling. Even if she isn't okay, she will never let Akemi notice that. Trouble her sister is the last thing she ever wants to do._

_On this matter, Akemi and she are so alike. _

_Lying for the sake of the person you love isn't a bad thing, is it?_

_However, that time, for no apparent reason, she has a strong ominous feeling._

_x...x_

She looks down to the ground, her hands clenched into tight fists.

Who says that memories cannot hurt?

Who says that memories cannot wound your heart?

"It isn't good to stay in ice for so long, Miyano-san. And your touch-me-not aura… The world isn't out to get you, you know?" He cocks his head slightly, sliding his hands into his pockets, and kicking some senseless stones out of his way.

_Who on Earth does he think he is?_

Suddenly spinning around, she furiously grabs his necktie to pull him toward her, keeping him standing still like a rock.

Before he realizes what's happening, a small knife is pressed against his throat, threatening to slice across it and mercilessly send him to another world.

He is frozen. Stunned. And stupefied.

After five incredibly long seconds, he attempts to step backward, hoping this outburst is merely a bad joke.

"Don't move. Unless you want to say hello to Shinigami." She tightens her grip around his tie, strangling him with not only her hands but also her piercing, hate-filled eyes. "I fully, completely detest you detectives. You have no sense of other people's personal space and privacy, do you?"

Obviously she means what she's doing.

"I doubt you dare kill me. This is a public place. In addition, shouldn't you be smart enough to understand what your action will cost you?" Breathing in, he states confidently, staring back at her with the same degree of intensity.

His unusual cockiness catches her by surprise. His fearless tone draws her in amazement.

A smirk uncontrollably graces her flawless lips as her anger slowly dissolves into those cerulean eyes.

She should have forced him to close his eyes in the beginning.

"Oh, really? Don't you look around you? This street is _perfectly_ empty. Even if I kill you, there is nobody here to witness. Even if you yell, I can tell that you attack me and I'm just defending myself. You're indeed a famous detective, but you're still a young man. Who can be so sure what you have in your wild mind, ne?" With every sentence, she brings her face closer and closer to him, simultaneously easing the knife further into his neck.

He gulps unconsciously. His lips remain tightly shut.

So close…

He can feel her cool breath on his heated cheek, numbing all his logical senses and even the scary fact that she can end his life at any instant.

"A girl can be deadly dangerous if she wants. Don't you know that, tantei-san?" Her voice is irresistibly attractive, yet her eyes are frigidly cold and uncompassionate.

As if she locks up the whole winter in those inscrutable eyes.

As if she buries everything that belongs to human feelings under an enormous iceberg.

He wonders how someone can be so hot and so cold at the same time.

"I don't want to play your detective game. And you surely don't want to play my game, either. That's why…Leave. Me. Alone." She enunciates every syllable into his ear.

And before he comes to his senses, she's already gone, disappearing behind the cherry blossom trees like an autumn wind. Leaving him speechless with shock. Overwhelming him with her chilly scent.

A faint bruise becomes visible on his throat.

.

.

.

She meant what she said to the young detective.

He will never want to play this hazardous game.

Being nosy will bring nothing but harm upon him.

Looking down at the knife in her hand, she grits her teeth.

If there is ever someone whom she desperately wants to kill, it will be_ that person, _undoubtedly.

...x...x...

.

.

.

_*** Everyone mindlessly goes past each other like strangers everyday._

_Even if they are related, it can not prevent them from ignoring others' existence in their busy, hectic lives._

_After all, human bonds are just as breakable as those snowflakes I often saw outside my window._

_After all, this world is so vast, with billions of people and billions of roads._

_._

_._

_Therefore,_

_I could never understand…_

_Why did you go out of your way that day, tangling our disparate paths and establishing this forbidden bond between us? ***_

_._

_._


	4. 3: Game of Paper Hearts

**3. GAME OF PAPER HEARTS**

.

.

_** Real life is a perilous game._

_It starts whenever it likes and you have no control whatsoever over it._

_Love is a dangerous game._

_Sometimes it starts with broken smiles and ends up in bitter tears.**_

_._

_._

_._

There are a lot of things she hates in this boring world.

For example…

She hates waiting.

Every so often, she used to wonder, why did God create time?

Did He want human beings to realize how temporal and ephemeral their existence is so that they will treasure what they have right here, right now?

Or did He want them to realize that everything is evanescent; both happiness and sadness will sooner or later vanish like a puff of smoke? And eventually they have to ask themselves that what they are trying to hold on to when all things will be here today and gone tomorrow?

She hates time.

It rips away everything she has.

It forces her to notice she's always alone.

It leaves her in shattered dreams and unfulfilled promises.

It freezes her in deep sorrow and everlasting pains.

She hates him.

He makes her remember the memories that she tries to forget.

He makes her feel like he can give her what she never looks for.

Like his smiles can easily ease her suffering.

Like he actually knows her much more than anyone else.

But, it's impossible because he is merely a stranger to her. A stranger she accidentally met and even threatened to kill yesterday.

She doesn't really know anything about him and nor does she want to. He should be wise enough to stay out of her way after what she did to him. In her case, his curiosity is never a very good thing.

And he seems to understand that better than she thought he would.

When she entered the classroom the next morning, he's already there. The bruise is well-hidden behind his high collar shirt.

Their eyes met in a very brief moment before he swiftly turned his attention back to the girl sitting beside him.

With her long dark hair, big shining eyes, and an innocent childish smile, that girl instantly reminded her of Akemi.

She felt sick to her stomach as she casually walked past them toward her seat.

A boy talks like her sister and a girl looks like her sister.

Is God playing with her?

Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath.

Whatever curveball life throws at her, she will strike back ten times stronger.

"Good morning, Shiho-san."

She raises her head automatically when someone calls her first name tentatively. It seems like forever since the last time she heard Akemi call that name.

"I'm Ran Mouri. Nice to meet you, Shiho-san. I had to attend a karate tournament three days ago. So I didn't have a chance to introduce myself. " Standing next to her desk, Ran smiles friendly at her.

She remains silent. From the corner of her eyes, she knows he is watching them intently.

Does he fear that she will hurt his little bird?

"Er, you always lived in America. So, it should be a lot different here. But don't worry. If you have any difficulties, please feel free to tell us. We will definitely help you out." Ran studies her face with apprehension, apparently mistaking her apathy for shyness.

That girl seems to be the type of person wearing her heart on her sleeve. You can read almost everything in her mind plainly through her expression. She tells you what she thinks. She shows you what she feels. With no façade.

Just like Akemi.

She looks down at her clenched hands. A bad habit she falls into every time she feels nervous, angry or hurt.

Much to her discomfort, Ran continues talking cheerfully despite her lack of response.

Right then the teacher walks in, thankfully stopping Ran's rambling and partially taking her back into her own quiet world.

She moves her eyes to the cracks in the wall with a sense of relief.

Many people try to be recognized. Many people try to make their presences known and felt.

Nobody truly wants to go through this life faceless and nameless.

Yeah. Nobody. Except her.

Well, it may be because she's always a loner. She prefers solitude and her life is mostly companionless, ever since long ago.

After all, living is just like writing a story. People look at it, sometimes read it, and normally forget it later. Even if they fully enjoy your story, as soon as they are done, they will unhesitatingly click to another page.

Forgetfulness is human nature.

That girl, he, or anyone else, will get tired of paying attention to her in no time. Like a child quickly get bored of a shiny object after watching them for a while.

That's how human mind works. That's how you get things moving.

End of story.

...x...x...

She stepped out of her classroom just after the lunch bell rang, wanting to get rid of the prickly feeling of being stared at.

Going around the school, walking past towering trees and wild bushes, she found herself in a large, abandoned garden, quite far away from the main building. Particularly far away from the noisy students.

The light seems brighter here and the air smells agreeably damp.

It should be a perfect place to stay without being disturbed.

She sits down on a fallen log, under the interlacing branches, gazing at the leaves changing color from bright summer tones to rich fall hues of amber, burgundy, orange, and red in the sunlight.

Minutes slowly tick by.

"How long are you going to stay up there like you're a monkey or something?" She asks suddenly without shifting her position, out of boredom.

Silence.

After a long moment, the trees rustle slightly on her left side and he noiselessly lowers himself to the ground.

"You should've had a third eye somewhere, Miyano-san." He walks toward her with a smiling face, without the faintest trace of embarrassment even when he got caught red-handed.

Wait. Smiling?

Is he a moron?

Who in their right mind would really smile at the person who almost killed them twenty hours ago?

"You know what? I think you should be smart enough to stay away from me. But maybe I just overestimate your intelligence." Turning her face in his direction, she glowers icily.

His unfazed expression changes minutely into something else. Serious. Calculating. Challenging.

"Shiho Miyano. An eighteen-year-old scientist in America. Her parents, Atsushi Miyano and Elena Miyano, were also famous scientists. After Atsushi's death, her British mother took Shiho to the U.S. and she died eight years later. Her older sister, Akemi Miyano, always lived in Japan with one of their far relatives. But she passed away in a tragic car accident four months ago. That should be the reason why Shiho Miyano came back here. Am I not right? Or do you need more information?" He taps his chin lightly, raising his eyes at her suggestively.

For a split second, she wanted to choke him to death. No warning. No kidding. For real this time.

"You…" She hisses furiously through gritted teeth, so angry to finish her sentence.

It takes every ounce of her concentration, her power to control herself.

"I know what you're thinking." His eyes are full of some emotion she can't comprehend.

Suddenly he grabs her hand, quickly pulls it out between them, and calmly drops something in her open palm.

Everything happened so fast that she didn't even have time to react.

She cautiously glimpses at the thing in her hand.

Cold. Hard. Metal. A knife.

"This knife is much sharper than the one you used yesterday. And this place is what you can really call _perfectly empty_. No student or teacher ever comes here during lunch break. Especially not since a suicide happened about two years ago." He says, ever so nonchalantly.

Despite her astonishment, her fingers immediately clench around the knife.

Without any hesitance, she raises it to his heart. Painfully slowly up to his throat, where the bruise hasn't healed yet.

"Don't challenge me. Do you think I dare not kill you?" She gives him a frosty glare that can freeze anything quicker than a double-dose of potassium nitrate.

Unflinching, he stares directly into her intimidating, glacial eyes, surprising her as he speaks in a clear and soft tone. "I'm not scared of death, you know. If you want to kill me, kill me."

So soft that it almost hurt her.

So clear that it violently tore her up inside.

His unexpected words, once again, ruthlessly threw her into the chaos of inerasable memories.

_x...x_

_It's almost midnight._

_The silver moon hangs in the dark sky like a crystal ball, shining on shadowy buildings and winding dusty streets that stretch on endlessly._

_She stands under the bridge, looking fixedly at a tall, long-haired man._

"_This time I return because I have something important to settle with you." Her voice is toneless, his face expressionless . "I don't like beating around the bush. So I will make myself clear. I want you to leave my sister alone before they find out your relationship with her." _

_He gazes up to the lonely moon. His phosphorescent eyes reflect the moonlight. Cold. Harsh. Piercing. _

_If she was like ice, he would be like stone. _

_They both learn to hide their emotions so well._

"_I will not." He replies in a low, deep voice. _

"_Do you know if you keep staying with Akemi, you will put her in immense danger? Your organization will never let her live peacefully. Can you protect her? Can you keep her safe? Can you sacrifice for her sake?" Her eyes narrow on him sharply. _

_She is beyond angry. She is more than hopeless. _

_When she found out Akai Shuichi, her sister's boyfriend, is a member of the most dangerous syndicate in Japan, she felt like the history's evilly repeating itself. _

_Akai pulls out a gun with a silencer from his long jacket and hands it to her apathetically._

"_I have promised Akemi that as long as I am alive, I will always stay by her side." His golden green eyes stare past her, into something invisible. _

"_Don't think that I can't kill you. I will do anything to protect Akemi. _Anything_." She points his gun at him coldly, setting her jaw in determination._

"_I know. It's kinda in your nature after all." The corner of his lips curve up slightly, sarcastically._

_His serene gaze lands on her like the soundless sigh of the wind. _

_And Akai closes his eyes. "Go ahead. Shoot me." _

_x...x_

Before she even knows it, she forcefully swings her arm forward.

The knife goes over his shoulder, hurls through the air, and quickly disappears behind the bushes.

A wide grin makes its way across his lips.

"Change your mind?"

"I don't do what other people tell me to do. And it is not fun if you kill someone who doesn't fear death."

"Touché."

She shoots her enraged eyes straight through his.

"What do you want from me? Why don't you just leave me alone? Why can't you just act like two days ago? You don't know me, I don't know you, we are strangers. Perfect. Period."

She's so sick of this.

Telling her to kill them. Treating her and their own lives like what, a joke?

He digs his hands into his pockets, a cocky expression on his face. "I told you yesterday, didn't I? A detective will _never_ give up the mystery until he solves it. So whatever game you want, I will play until the end."

Suddenly she feels the strong urge to find the knife again.

He is so infuriating and insufferable.

Doesn't he know that to satisfy one's curiosity, the price may be very, very expensive?

And yet he even considered throwing his life away to test her, someone who might be an undiscovered serial killer for all he knows!

She clenches her jaw in an attempt to keep her anger at bay.

"And…" He pauses for a moment, seeming to ponder over something. Then his blue eyes pierce right into hers, sincere and serious. "Somehow I just can't stand to see you like this, Miyano."

What he said totally caught her off guard.

They barely know each other. Frankly, until a few days ago, she wasn't even aware of his existence.

Why does he need to care? Why does…she need to care?

For a few seconds, she plainly stares back at him.

The color of his pupils is unfathomable.

Like a bottomless ocean, she finds herself diving deeper and deeper. So lost and suffocating.

Her fury, her pain, her sadness...

Somehow magically they all spin around and fall down into the endless depth of those eyes.

"Honestly, are you hitting on me?" Exhaling inaudibly, she raises one eyebrow at him with suspicion, a smirk gradually playing on her lips.

"What?" He blushes but immediately shakes his head. "Of course not!"

And without warning, she leans closer to him, just like yesterday, carelessly invading his personal space, her nose nearly touching his nose.

"Good." He jumped unconsciously when her one word was coolly breathed out on his face.

Still leaving him no chance to move away, she tilts her head to the side, slowly whispering into his ear.

"For your information, there is one important rule in my game… Don't _ever _fall in love with me, tantei-san."

She gracefully steps back. Inside her emerald eyes is Antarctica.

Everything freezes in those deep pools of dangerous darkness. Seemingly forever.

"If you break that rule, it will be worse than death."

With one last glance, she glides out of the garden like a ghost.

Too fast for him to catch up.

Too fast for him to hold back.

And all of a sudden, he realizes he doesn't know how to breathe under icy water.

.

.

.

...x...x...

.

.

"_Our game may be just like a locked door._

_Tempting._

_The more I try to tell you to stop unlocking the closed door, the more you want to yank it open._

_Seeking the unknown, pushing against constraints, and desiring to taste forbidden fruits_

_after all_

_are human nature_

_._

_._

_Neh, Kudo_

_I always feel somewhat regretful every time I remember that day_

_Why couldn't I realize sooner that we actually have something in common?_

_._

_._

_We never really do what other people tell us to do…'_

_._

_._

* * *

I'm very sory for not updating this story for a while. I didn't have time and I wasn't too sure how to continue it. I never knew writing a long story can be this hard until now. ={

But thanks to your great reviews and some people's reminders, I tried my best to write this chapter. Like a game, Shiho won the first round, Shinichi seemed to win the second round, and I have no idea what I should write next. To be honest, after reading this one, I think maybe all of you are yelling me to stop it right now. ;_; Gomen, I never say I am a good writer. x{


End file.
